Small skipper
Its eggs sit hidden inside a grass stem for months, laid in a neat row before the caterpillar even hatches.
| Where | Rough grassland, verges, and glades |
|---|---|
| Size | 25 to 30 mm wingspan |
| When | June to August |
It is a compact orange-brown butterfly that perches with its wings held in a distinctive half-open, moth-like posture, and males show a thin dark line of scent scales across the forewing.
Caterpillars feed inside grass stems and blades, chiefly on Yorkshire fog, and the species produces a single generation each year.
Traits
Habitat
Grassland
Colour
Orange, Brown
Active
Day
To people
Harmless
Activity through the year
Often confused with
Essex skipper has the undersides of its antenna tips black rather than the small skipper's orange-yellow, which is the most reliable way to separate the two in the field.
Questions
Is the Small skipper dangerous to people?
The Small skipper is harmless to people.
When can you see the Small skipper?
The Small skipper can be seen from June to August, by day.
Plate retouched from a photo by Didier Descouens, CC BY‑SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons Licence
The plate on this page is shared under the same licence as its source, CC BY-SA.
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Butterflies and moths›Skippers›Thymelicus
Last updated 2026-09-26. Every entry is checked against published sources.